Summary:
The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien is an edition by Tolkien experts Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond. It covers all the poetry Tolkien wrote in his lifetime, published and unpublished, poetry belonging to the Legendarium, early lyrics, humorous poetry for personal occasions, poetry translations, and all manner of verse in between, in several languages. That said, this edition does not include all the verse from Tolkien’s Legendarium. In fact, the most well-known longer poetic Legendarium texts and texts of the translations and adaptations are discussed here but published only in extract, as their full text was felt to be sufficiently available elsewhere. On the other hand, there are about seventy poems in this edition that were previously unpublished and about half a dozen that had not been fully published yet (counts vary here depending on criteria). In fandom, a particularly well-known example of a previously unavailable text is the English original of “The Complaint of Mîm the Dwarf”. Due to the earlier editing efforts of Christopher Tolkien, most of the new poems are not directly set within the Legendarium. However, there is previously unseen material on Doriath, the Children of Hurin, Gondolin and Scatha the Worm. There are also many poems that are adjacent to previously known work of Tolkien’s in different ways. All these poems are carefully edited, very often in multiple versions, with extensive commentary, throwing a great deal of light on Tolkien’s writing process and creative life.
Why should I check out this canon:
The Collected Poems are of interest from different angles, depending on your interests.
First, there are the previously unpublished poems or those that were previously published but difficult to find. These are a mixed bag and invite different approaches. You may wish to home in on the Legendarium poems and the details they add to the Legendarium and its development. You may wish to look at other new material and draw out connections with the Legendarium, of which there are plenty. Or you may prefer to look at some of these new poems simply in their own right. Some of them are funny, some invoke beautiful imagery, and some reflect movingly on their author. If you want to nominate any of these for Innumerable Stars, either by themselves or for crossovers, more detailed information and instructions are scheduled to follow tomorrow.
But also, beyond that, the volume has plenty to appeal to readers interested in Tolkien’s poetry. The history of many beloved poems is documented here in detail not seen before. Some information was already available in The History of Middle-earth (or in editorial prefaces) but Christopher Tolkien was mainly concerned with tracing the development of the Legendarium; here the poems’ history can be studied in their own right. You may find the different versions of such poems inspiring for Innumerable Stars, even if you will need to nominate the poem in question for a different canon than The Collected Poems.
Where can I get this? The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien was published in 2024 in three volumes as a hardcover by Harper Collins. You get a huge amount of meticulously edited text, but it really is an investment. An e-book version is available, but even the lower price of this may not be affordable for some budgets. If so, your best hope for the full edition will be the library. Some of the individual poems contained can, however, be found independently, in excerpts or in full. One of the most widely accessible poem texts is that of “Bilbo’s Last Song”, which has been published multiple times in different formats, illustrated and set to music. “The Complaint of Mîm the Dwarf” was first published in German and recently translated by @slightnettles into French for the JRRT Native Languages Fest on Tumblr.
What fanworks already exist?
The Collected Poems do not have a canonical tag shared tag on AO3 (yet). At the SWG Archive, there is an overlapping fandom tag “Tolkien’s Poetry.” Perhaps the most fannish responses so far have been to “The Complaint of Mîm the Dwarf”, which started drawing interest even when only a German translation was known. There is a tag used for “The Complaint of Mîm the Dwarf” on AO3 by the author Huorinde (8 works). Anerea’s moodboard for one of Huorinde’s fics appears above as image, with her permission. You may also want to check other differently tagged fanworks for Mîm, such as Lady Brooke’s “Once There Were Words”. Further, here is a drawing by @helyannis on Tumblr,
Some other individual poems have older fanworks, dating back to before 2024. Here is an older response to "Mythopoeia" by pandemonium_123. Here is an artwork for Bilbo’s Last Song by @mgcoco. There are two crossover responses to two poems by Kaylee Arafinwiel: here for “Mythopoeia” and here for “The Last Ark”. And, finally, my own drabble in response to the poem about Scatha in The Collected Poems is here.
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